Always You
by Marie Meyers
Summary: Elena is left at cheer camp, and the one who gives her a ride is none other than Damon, whom she hates. But does she really hate him?


Title: Always You

Summary: The five times she found him there with her, were the five times she couldn't stand the most. Elena x Damon. Slight Elena x Stefan. Song-fic, "Always You" by Ingrid Michaelson. First Prompt. Rated T/M for suggestive or explicit themes.

Genre: Drama, Romance, Angst

Characters: Elena G., Damon S.

Rated: T/M

Disclaimer/Letter from the Author: Hey, guys! It's Marie Meyers with a new TVD fanfic, this one for my favorite pairing, Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore. Now, I know that the new season hasn't really kept us hopeful, but I haven't seen the new season yet, and regardless, I wouldn't give up on my Damon and Elena relationship even if it killed me. Haha.

I've been a fan of Delena from the very beginning. I've written a few TVD fandoms in the past and this is the first time I've written one for this pair. I think it's because I was never sure how I wanted a story about _them_ to go.

Listening to Always You by Ingrid Michaelson, I was able to figure it out. :) And here we are.

This fiction is pre Delena and also post vampire Elena. It will be a five or six part drabble.

 _The Vampire Diaries_ and its characters are not mine to claim. The song, _Always You_ belongs to Ingrid Michaeslon; however, the plot of _Always You_ belongs to writer Marie Meyers. Please ask permission before reuse of any parts of this fanfiction.

Copyright, Always You, by Marie Meyers, 2015. All Rights Reserved.

*

 ** _I._** _I wait in the rain, but I don't complain, because I wait for you._

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Thought you'd like a ride."

Elena glared at the vampire staring up at her with the faintest of smiles. _This asshole_ , she thought. "Really? Or did you simply come here to laugh at me?" She didn't give him a chance to respond as she said, "Look, I don't need a ride from you. Stefan's coming, so if you could just leave, that'd be great." _This day has been enough of a nightmare. Dealing with Damon is the last thing I need right now._

"Hate to break it to you, but Stefan's not coming." Elena straightened her back against the stop sign.

"What? Why not? Where is he?"

"He's at home."

Elena raised a brow as a soft incredulous laugh escaped her. "I don't understand."

"Well," Damon began, "around five o' clock this evening, Stefan received a text asking if he could pick up a certain brunette – whom for all intents and purposes we'll just name _Elena –_ " Elena rolled her eyes at his sarcasm "at the site of a cheer leading boot camp gone terribly awry. It just so happens that, at the time this text message was received, his cell phone had been on his bed, and he had been in the shower, leaving the text to be read by the only other resident at the Salvatore manor," – Damon grinned – "me."

Elena paled. "So you mean that Stefan has no idea that I'm here? That I text him?" _Please tell me this isn't happening._

"Because I happened to take his phone and put it in my pocket before I left, yes; he has no inclinations of your distressing situation whatsoever."

 _This…is totally happening._

Her brows knit together in speculation, "…And _you_ came here to pick me up?" she asked slowly.

"That much should be obvious."

"Why?" Elena said warily.

"Well I thought about deleting the text message and letting you handle things on your own, but then I decided that it would be even more entertaining to see the look on your face when you had to share a car with me."

Elena blinked, frowning. "Forget it. I'll walk to my house. I won't sit in a car with you."

As she turned her back on Damon and adjusted the wet strap of her backpack on her shoulder, she tightened the bows of her shoe laces and began walking in the direction of home. She fumed silently. _Just my luck! Damon would do something like this. And today, of all days…_

Thunder sounded in the space around her, followed by a flash of lightning, and she sighed dejectedly when it began raining harder. A second later, she heard him drive up slowly beside her. She refused to look his direction. Hell, she wouldn't even talk to him.

"You do know, it's four miles to the your house from here?" Damon called out, a humorous lilt to his voice. She didn't answer.

 _Ignore him, Elena._

"And that you'll probably die of pneumonia before you get there?"

 _What an exaggerating asshole._

"And that your cheer uniform is so soaked that it's clinging to you like a second skin?"

 _Don't fall for it!_ Elena told herself, walking faster. _Don't fall for it, don't —_

"My, Elena Gilbert! Is that a taut nipple I –"

"You're such an asshole!" Elena whirrled on her heels, turning to Damon as she looked at him with scorn. "What the hell? What is your _problem_?" she seethed.

Damon was silent a moment. Then she heard, "I want you to get in the car, Elena."

"Being in close proximity with you is the last thing I want!"

"Then, fine, by all means, prance around town literally looking like the wet cheerleader from every guy's fantasy. Stefan will _love_ how you put your goods on display, just because you want to be hard headed."

"Why does it even matter to you if I'm out here in the rain or not? You're such a jerk off, Damon."

"Let me amend my earlier statement. You aren't hard-headed, but some lucky onlooker will be. And they'll be the one with the jerk off. I'm the least of your worries."

"Shut up!" Elena groaned.

"Well, _sorry_ to _rain on your parade…_ "

She gave him a glare.

"I'm just taking you to the Gilbert home. Get in the damn car, Elena. Be reasonable. Don't offend your prudish sensibilities on my account."

She could see the hard stare of his blue eyes from where she stood, and she wanted to tell him just how _reasonable_ she was willing to be for his egotistical self, but when the thunder roared overhead once more, Elena found her shoulders sagging in defeat.

It would take more than his command to get her into his passenger seat, however. Damon must have sensed this, as well as her unwilling concede of defeat, because he added, "Stefan would rather have you endure one car ride with me, than this storm, Elena."

"When did you start caring about your brother's feelings?" she retorted in agitation.

After a heavy sigh, she checked their surroundings for cars, and made her way to the passenger door.

She expected a smug expression to grace his porcelain features when she opened the car door and tossed her backpack in the back seat. Instead, she saw his jaw work and his adam's apple bob once, as his eyes stared intently at her face, skimming down her figure just barely, before the side of his mouth twitched in what looked to be a frown. Elena thought her eyes were just playing tricks, so she blinked once, convinced it was just her imagination when she saw his face slackened into a disinterested expression a second later. She sat down reluctantly, almost slamming the car door, and crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.

"Don't break my car, Gilbert," Damon said wryly. "It's not her fault you got left behind in the rain."

"Shut up, Damon," Elena grumbled. _As if I could break your car even if I tried…not that you_ ** _wouldn't_** _deserve it._

The rain trickled down her hair, unto her cold cheeks and dripped onto the window glass. Elena stared at her reflection sulkily, finding uneasy relief as they drove in tense, uncomfortable silence. It lasted for only a few minutes, Elena startling to attention when she noticed Damon's arm in close proximity to her body. They were at a stoplight. She held her breath and tensed her body, clutching the door handle as she stared at him with alerted eyes. His hand reached away from her cowering form, towards the air vents, pushing them in her direction. Heat she hadn't noticed before fanned her skin, and Elena looked from the vents to him in question.

Damon had his brow raised, face twisted in an exasperated expression. "Heat, Elena," he said to her. "You were shivering."

She swallowed awkwardly and slowly loosened her grip on the door handle. "Oh."

"What did you think I was doing?"

"I –" Elena felt her cheeks warm from embarrassment. "Nothing."

"Well, anyway," he settled back into his seat as the light changed, "mind telling me why you were left behind back there? Didn't hear the alarm this morning?"

"Funny," Elena grumbled, "but no, it wasn't anything like that."

"I would think that they'd _notice_ you weren't with them. Don't you guys do some sort of roll call?"

"They noticed," she muttered.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that they left me there. It was intentional. On purpose."

"You were ditched."

Elena raised her brows. _No duh._

"I thought…you were a _popular_ high school student. Shouldn't you not be bullied?" There was a tone in his voice Elena didn't quite _like_ …a smirk she couldn't see, but he wasn't hiding. "You must be quite the loser, after all."

"This isn't the 1950's, Damon." Elena glared. "Things don't work like that."

"Right, right. Say, what'd you do to get bullied? Mess up a somersault?"

"Why don't you ask Caroline that?"

"Caroline? So she left you."

"Yes! Caroline. _She_ left me." Elena turned in her seat to face him. "Thanks to you, my best friend thinks I'm some bitch back stabber."

"You are manipulative. It's not my fault that when it comes to my brother, Stefan, you like to make promises to people and then break them."

"You kill people, Damon. You're a cheat and a sneak, and the most manipulative one out of the both of us. What broken promises? You're only ever in it if it's for yourself. You want trades and exchanges – _are you serious_? You can't be trusted."

"Sure, I kill people, but so what? Why do things the hard way when there's a quicker, easier alternative. In with a penny, out with a pound, Elena."

"Wow, don't you ever feel disgusted with yourself?"

"Actually, I always feel more happy and alive with the more abhorrent things I do."

 _I've got to get out of this car,_ Elena thought. Then another thought struck her, "Wait. Why did you read the text message?"

"Stefan was showering."

"But the phone was on his bed."

"I was going through his things."

" _What?_ "

"Elena, chill, not a big deal. You should read the journal entries he has about you. I've got to say though, the Elena Stefan dreams about is no where the prudish girl you are. I like her a lot better."

Elena scoffed. "Despicable."

"Incorrigible, too."

"I was talking about _you_."

"So was I." Damon smirked. Elena rolled her eyes.

Silence settled over them again.

This time, Elena broke the silence. "That still doesn't explain why you decided to get me."

"I told you, thought you wanted a ride."

"Was it guilt?" She asked, "Seeing as it's _your_ fault I was left behind."

"I didn't tell Caroline to do something like that to you. What would be the point in that? 'Hey, Caroline, ditch Elena one day during a practice and leave her stranded because I think that would be just so original.' Lame."

"Maybe if you stopped sleeping around with my best friend and glamouring her she wouldn't be so misguided," Elena bit out.

Her eyes were trained on the windshield and their surroundings. They were familiar to her now, and she knew they were only a few blocks away from her home.

"I can't do that. She's pretty useful."

"You don't need _my_ friend."

"But I do." He turned on a blinker and turned a corner.

"Why?"

"She distracts me."

"From what?"

"What do you mean, 'From what'?"

Less than two blocks away, he stopped the car and turned to look at her. His blues eyes were startling. _Intense_ , the word whispered in her mind. There was a frown on his features as he gazed at her.

"What does she distract you from?" Elena repeated, voice small, breathless, mind captivated by something she didn't know.

"I'm hated by someone that I never stop thinking about. This very same someone is off limits to me, and always around me. I breathe in their scent as much as I do my own. How can I not need a distraction from that?"

Her lips parted. She wanted to ask, 'Who is this person?', but the words didn't come right away. When they were there, on the tip of her tongue, Elena found she couldn't say them. She didn't know why, but something inside her was telling her it was better if she didn't ask.

If Elena were to say she didn't notice the shift in the air around them, she'd be either blind or lying. The tension broke, rippled, and heightened beyond anything Elena could describe. There were no words to explain what was happening between them, and if possible, his eyes seemed to burn brighter and his face seemed to be closer to her own.

Looking away from him quickly, Elena was startled to realize she felt a twinge of sympathy for Damon due to his declaration. _A killer like him doesn't deserve me to feel sorry for him,_ she thought bitterly.

Schooling her rampant emotions, and her features, she turned back in her seat to stare out the window.

"I don't really care what your reasons are, Damon," she said quietly, "that doesn't make any of it right. I won't think it's okay that you're doing to Caroline that things that you are. I don't care what you're going through. Just take me home already."

After a moment of silence, Damon started driving again, and the silence stretched until he parked in front of her home.

"Gilbert Residence!" Damon called in fake cheer. Elena scowled at him and pulled the door handle. A bit dryer than she had been originally, she opened the door to the back passenger and retrieved her backpack. The rain fell lightly, and she wondered if she really needed the ride after all.

As she shut the door and headed towards her porch, she heard Damon yell, "What? No thanks?"

"I didn't want your help to begin with," she replied without turning.

"Right, well. Next time, Elena Gilbert, check the weather channel."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Bite me, Damon."

 _Don't tempt me, Elena."_

Eyes widening, she stopped dead in her tracks as his voice reached her ears. Something about the way it sounded.

Her heart was beating so fast in her chest that it hurt.

"Just get in the damn house already, Elena," she heard him say. He didn't stick around after that, and Elena heard the sound of his wheels squealing as he drove away.

She didn't go into the house until her heart slowed and she remembered how to breathe.

 _to be continued…_

AEN: Second drabble/prompt to be posted soon! What did you think? (; Remember to review!


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